What is a gun without bullets?

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gbeecher

gbeecher

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I heard a recent news story about the murders in Afghanistan commited by our 'allies' against coalition soldiers - it said they are 'now carrying loaded weapons' or something similar. My response was WHAT!? I seem to recall hearing this same thing after 9/11 with the soldiers protecting our airports. Is it just me, or is it stupid to carry a firearm without loaded ammunition? My rifle at home is stored in a closet along with the ammo, but the gun is kept unloaded for safety sake. My two sons are 14 and 18 and both have been taught safe gun handling and how to shoot. I can only assume (and hope) that our local policemen carry loaded handguns! When did this crazy policy start, and what is the reason behind it? The older I get, the less I understand about our upside down world! :confused::banghead:
 
About as useful as a bat without a ball.
You gotta be a lot closer to hit anything.

I would think that any military would carry loaded weapons.
They would if I were in charge.
 
I remember a few times while deployed to certain places, not being allowed to keep rounds in the weapons. Pissed off an officer when I told my Marines to grab there clubs. When your in a secure area thats one thing (there is nothing secure in Afganistan), when your in a Forword Operating Base thats something else.
 
I would like to know if the guns are really loaded now (as in round chambered). I have a feeling they aren't. I guess having a loaded magazine in is better than nothing.
It's a novel idea and certainly of little to no consequense to the final outcome but I'd like to see all our service members trained and equiped with a small light LCP or P3AT so they could be armed at all times.
 
An unloaded gun is only effective as a deterrent when the bad guys don't know it is unloaded. That being said, whenever you see a man armed with a gun you will automatically presume it to be loaded. You can even get away with killing someone for pointing an unloaded gun at you. No judge or jury will expect you to give benefit of the doubt. After all, the first rule of gun safety is:

“Treat all guns as if they are loaded” or some close variation thereof.

So in short, an unloaded gun can be every bit as useful as a loaded one in the role of a deterrent until the bad guy calls your bluff.
 
Owen Sparks said:
An unloaded gun is only effective as a deterrent when the bad guys don't know it is unloaded. That being said, whenever you see a man armed with a gun you will automatically presume it to be loaded. You can even get away with killing someone for pointing an unloaded gun at you. No judge or jury will expect you to give benefit of the doubt. After all, the first rule of gun safety is:

“Treat all guns as if they are loaded” or some close variation thereof.

So in short, an unloaded gun can be every bit as useful as a loaded one in the role of a deterrent until the bad guy calls your bluff.
Click to expand...
I'm specifically talking about firearms carried by soldiers, policeman and security guards. I understand that just the sight of a gun can intimidate a criminal, though I would prefer that mine is loaded, thank you very much!
 
What is NATO training these Afghan troops for, to kill their trainers?
Click to expand...
No that training is according to them from a higher power:rolleyes::banghead:
 
Owen Sparks said:
So in short, an unloaded gun can be every bit as useful as a loaded one in the role of a deterrent until the bad guy calls your bluff.
Click to expand...

So, do you carry unloaded then? I'm sure you don't.

In poker, the player who bets as though the other players will never call his bluff will leave the table broke. His behavior is folly.

Likewise, the man who draws an unloaded gun with the expectation that the other guy will believe it's loaded and therefore will back down is eventually going to learn why that is also folly.
 
without ammunition a gun is a close quarter melee weapon. if its a long gun it's a club, if it's a handgun it's more like a sap or brass knuckles.
 
This is the type of thing that comes about when the politicians call the shots. They unnecesserally get our people killed.


During the 1960's riots I was ordered to be a Platoon Leader for National Guardsmen going into the riots. (I was a Warrant Officer (pilot) in the Guard at the time).
I was thretened with Court Marshal because I refused to order those men into the riots without any ammo. I said any man under my command WILL have ammo, if I have to buy it myself.

Later I found out from my Police friends that they were also ordered to empty their guns and not to load them unless ordered to do so.
 
A firearm without ammo makes you a target!! I had a similar situation where while in the Navy we had a security protocol that when an alarm went off we treated it as if it were a real threat. Well DUH, if a door alarm sounds we had 2 choices, 1- send a runner to check the door. 2- send out the sab alert team. We had a situation one night where a door alarm sounded. The Watch officer decided to send out the SAB team. I was the team leader. We were issued weapons and when I inquired regarding the ammo she said we did not need any. I bluntly told her we would not be leaving the watch floor without ammunition. She looked at me like I was crazy. I did give her the other option but she decided to issue a limited amount of ammo and we were instructed to not load up. Well that was better than going out with a bunch of 12ga clubs. Well it was a false alarm and no one was shot. Mostly due to the training of my team not because we did not have the ammo loaded.

If someone points a gun at me it is loaded period. I will react in the appropriate manner. If I have a gun it will not be drawn or visible and if it is not loaded it is just weighing down my belt as I will not draw and threaten with an empty weapon, period.
 
As i understand the military has always restricted weapons from being loaded in certain, "secure" areas to reduce the risk of accidents. Obviously the threat of being attacked sometimes becomes higher than that of an accident so rules change.
 
Wisdom from The Duke:

Goudy: Now is it not true that you sprang up on old man Wharton and his two sons with a deadly, six shot revolver in your hand?
Rooster Cogburn: I always try to be ready.
Goudy: Was this revolver loaded and cocked?
Rooster Cogburn: Well, a gun that's unloaded and cocked ain't good for nothin'.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065126/quotes
 
As i understand the military has always restricted weapons from being loaded in certain, "secure" areas to reduce the risk of accidents. Obviously the threat of being attacked sometimes becomes higher than that of an accident so rules change.
Click to expand...

Exactly. Inside the wire, leadership up at the big picture level tends to consider negligent discharges and (friendly) active shooter scenarios to be bigger concerns than enemy action. What this says about our leadership, and what the fact that both issues are legitimate causes for concern says about how well we screen and recruit our military personnel, is open for debate.
 
I was in the service for 8 years. For 3 of them, I stood a 4 hour roving watch every duty day. My weapon was quite empty. I was not allowed to load it until told to do so by someone much, much further up the food chain. This was back in the '70s.
 
The only military guys I know of who carry "loaded" aka chambered round firearms are either M.P/S.P. types, or Marines guarding special areas on Navy Bases. I know this because I have a friend who is a retired Air Force S.P. and I currently work on a Navy Submarine Base with Marines. We DO NOT joke around about the marines being "Barney Fife" with only one bullet in their pocket. (at least to their faces, they did prone out a 2 star Admiral in full dress uniform one day. From what I am told that Admiral was PISSED OFF but could not do anything as the marines could/would have shot him and got away with it.)

The average rifleman/marine/airman/sailor will almost never get the chance to carry a loaded firearm outside of the range.
 
Gun without bullets?

It is only an impact weapon, or if it is a rifle with bayonet, a spear.
 
Been awhile but back in '72 I was at DaNang RVN. With the exception of a handful of us Marines the base was pretty much Air Force and Army. Only we Marines carried loaded weapons. I recall the Air Force APs did carry revolvers (.38 Special) when on duty at the various check points. DaNang was about as inside any wire as anyone could get. A few sapper attacks and those damn rockets were about it.

An unloaded weapon is useless (short of being a club) when the other guys know you are for all purposes unarmed. Makes no sense to me anyway.

Ron
 
Did I miss something?

Who called a Marine or compared a Marine to Barmey Fife?
 
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